The playground.

Cutting through the playground seems to be the quickest way to the tower. Plus you can’t see anything in the playground that would **** you to avoid. Who knows what could be waiting for you at the gazebo. You continue down the path to the children’s play area. You open the gate hearing the metal screech as it pivots on its hinges.

You whip your head to the side when you hear a clatter on the playground. You turn the other way when the chains on the swings clank, the swing is still swaying as you look. Is something here after all? You ready your bat as you continue to look around. You see, through the holes in the plastic piping on the playground, just a flash of color passing by the opening.

You slowly approach the playground, readying yourself for anything. You look through one of the holes, but you don’t see anything in the pipe. The clatter of footsteps on the metal flooring draws your attention but still nothing. You spin around as the gate you came in clangs shut. Then you feel something brush against your leg, you instinctively swing your bat and feel it make contact.

You watch as a small man skids across the wood chips that cover the ground. “Ow that hurt you fucking bitch,” the small man rubs his head before grabbing a tall cone hat from the ground. He stands up brushing off his blue tunic, placing the red cone on his head. You can’t help but think that he’s the spitting image of a garden gnome.

Two impacts hit the back of your knees and you collapse to the ground. With a glance behind you, you spot 2 more gnomes with their fists clenched. “Why’d you hit the boss? Did the goblins send you?” one of them starts questioning you.

The other gnome grabs your left hand raising it up, “Boss, look it. It’s the king’s ring.”

“Let go of me,” you demand as you pull your arm away from the gnome.

“The king’s ring, so you’re not from the fucking goblins. But you are human, else that ring wouldn’t be there,” the boss says getting closer to your kneeling form. “Now listen, we get it you’re in a hurry to get to the tower, and trust me I don’t want to be hit any more,” he says rubbing his head where you hit him with your bat. “But if we’ve only got a limited visit to the human world we’d like to learn about some of these advancements. So tell us about some of our scavenged goods and you can go easy, as that.”

Will they really just let you go? After the werewolf you assumed all the monsters would be trying to stop you. If the gnome is that adverse to being hit, maybe you can just leave now. Can the 3 small men stop you? What exactly do they want to know?